Mayor Wu meets with Boston's faith leaders before testifying on Capitol Hill
Mayor Wu sat with faith leaders on Tuesday before she heads to Washington D. C. next week to testify before Congress on Boston's sanctuary city status.
"A sense of fear, confusion"
A news release said the meeting was about "their partnership with the City to make Boston the safest major city in the country." Most of the faith leaders voiced their concerns about the Trump administration's immigration policies.
"There is a sense of fear, confusion, throughout the communities," Mayor Wu said after the meeting.
Over the weekend, Wu engaged in a war of words with the Trump administration's Border Czar Tom Homan after he claimed he would "bring hell to Boston."
Crime climbing in downtown Boston
Wu is also facing homegrown concerns over safety with a community meeting Thursday related to shoplifting and drug use in downtown Boston.
While Wu and Police Commissioner Michael Cox have touted lower crime across the city overall, total crime in downtown Boston was at a seven-year high last year.
"You can see people running out of TJMaxx, Marshalls, Home Goods, and security try to collect their merchandise back, and people fight with them," said Mack Celestin, a long-time security guard in Downtown Crossing.
The issues are trickling over from other parts of the city.
"We have a lot of the drug trafficking and violence associated with the Mass and Cass movement," said City Councilor Ed Flynn.
City shoplifting initiative
Wu told reporters she is aware of the issues and hopes that police can devote more resources to lower-level crimes because of the city's success tackling violent crime.
"For example, there has been a specific shoplifting initiative and effort that is a close partnership between the Boston Police and the District Attorney. That has been yielding some new ways of tackling that issue," she said.
